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Kenny McCormick
Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick, voiced by Matt Stone, is one of the 5 main characters of South Park (along with Stan, Kyle, Cartman and, Butters). Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, he first appeared in the short films both entitled "The Spirit of Christmas" in 1992 and 1995. He is voiced by Mike Judge in the feature film "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" and Matt Stone in the season 8 episode "The Jeffersons". Kenny is most famous for dying in nearly every episode in the first five seasons of South Park. He is also easily recognizable for almost always wearing an orange parka that covers most of his face and muffles his speech. His birthday is March 22. The character was taken off the show in the fifth season episode "Kenny Dies", but returned in the following season and has since been a regular character; however, he now only dies occasionally. In most of the episodes in the 10th and 11th seasons, he tends to recede into the background, though this tendency seems to have ended with the 11th season finale. Throughout the twelfth season, Kenny did not die once. Kenny died three times in total in Season 13. First Appearances Early versions of the character first appeared in Parker and Stone's two pre-''South Park'' shorts, "The Spirit of Christmas" (1992 and 1995). In the first Spirit of Christmas short, the character resembling Kenny is unnamed, while the character resembling Cartman is named Kenny. The unnamed Kenny character also speaks unmuffled in the first short. Both of these characters get killed in the short. In the second Spirit of Christmas, a character with both Kenny's appearance and name appears and dies. Like the other three main characters, Kenny first appeared on the South Park television series in the first episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" (1997). Character Inspiration Kenny, like many of South Park's characters, is based on a real person; in this case it was a childhood friend of Trey Parker's also named Kenny. In a 2000 interview Trey said that the real life Kenny was the poorest kid in the neighborhood and wore an orange parka that made it difficult for anyone to understand what he was saying. Trey continued stating that real life Kenny would disappear from time to time causing the others to wonder if he was dead.2 Other Possible Inspirations Highlander's Kenny There was an immortal named Kenny who was stuck at the age of around 10 or so, and who was over 1000 years old, in the 1990s Highlander series. The Highlander immortals typically die repeatedly and then come back to life, until they are decapitated. In the one of the openings, you can clearly see Kenny's head being cut off with a pair of scissors. Also in: "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" Kenny has his arms torn off and his head knocked off by the Middle Park players during the game. Meatloaf's "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" In the song "May Appear Closer Than They Are" by Meatloaf, the first verse is about a boy named Kenny who died, and the second verse is about having an alcoholic father. The question remains: coincidence, or deliberate on the part of the writer?. Characterization Appearance Kenny almost always wears an orange Snorkel parka, orange trousers, and brown gloves. Almost all of the time, Kenny has his hood on so that only his eyes and nose are visible. The shape of his hood surrounding his face makes him look considerably like a large vagina or ankh symbol; whether or not this was intentional on the creators part is unknown. Underneath his hood he has messy blond hair, which looks somewhat similar to that of Tweek, another South Park character. When he gets frightened, or when he's crying, he'll pull the strings of his hood, making the face of his hood close up a bit. In "South Park is Gay", Kenny has another parka. His parka is a light purple with very light purple pockets and his sleeves too. Also in this episode he buys another parka that is pink and fluffy. His trousers are black and with brown boots with a black stripe down of the boots. He is also shown to have almost nothing on underneath his parka, as seen in the episodes "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000", the film, "Lil' Crime Stoppers", and "Lice Capades", though he does have a white T-shirt on. In the episode "Major Boobage" and in "Good Times with Weapons", his anime self is shown to have blue eyes. Kenny is also shown to have blue eyes in the episode "Starvin' Marvin", in which a mutant turkey pulls out his eye and in a close-up, a blue iris is momentarily visible. It is worth mentioning however, that in an early draft for South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut; Kenny is described as having hazel eyes. In the film and "A Very Crappy Christmas" it's shown that Kenny sleeps in his underwear, making him the only one of the boys who does so (Kyle, Cartman, Stan, and Butters all wear pajamas and Tweek Tweak never sleeps and thus has no pajamas except for in "Child Abduction is Not Funny"). Whether this has something to do with his perversion or his poverty (I.E. being unable to afford central heating and/or pajamas) is unknown. However, in other episodes, he is shown wearing all his clothes including his parka in bed. It would seem that his parka was made from pieces of his bedroom curtains, as in the episode "Quintuplets 2000", when we see Kenny practicing opera singing, we see his curtains in the background. They are of orange material, and a huge part of one is missing. Ever since the debut of the South Park Movie "Bigger, Longer and Uncut", the few appearances Kenny has had without his Parka on all featured him with spikey golden blonde hair. However, there was one exception in the episode "Super Best Friends", when towards the end Stan found Kenny drowned to death in the pool, he actually had a bald fade & brown hair. In the original Christmas short, he looks generally the same, but he wears green mittens, his mouth is visible and his voice is intelligible (it sounds a little like Craig's or Clyde's). He only has one line, though. A photo-realistic version of Kenny's appearance was produced as a police artist sketch for the episode "Free Willzyx", showing his nose. In "Margaritaville", when the boys are playing with squirrels, Kenny is shown wearing part of his "toga" over his face mimicking how his parka covers his face, but more parts, such as his hair, are still visible, in W.T.F he wears a mask that muffles his voice as El Pollo Loco a parody of Mexican wrestler Rey Mysterio. And he also shows entire face (without any speaking line) in "The Losing Edge" with a cap which covers a little of the right eye/forehead.